Techies reveal their creative side for charity

The People's Trust for Endangered Species is a conservation charity, created in 1977, with a special focus on UK mammals. Martin Newman's entry, 'Mapping our Changing Wildlife', proposed a system to allow "citizen scientists" to input information about mammals killed on roads, using mobile devices or PCs.

The system uses the "spatial-analysis capabilities of SQL Server 2008" and mapping technologies, such as LiveMaps, to track where and when mammals are being killed on Britain's roads.

Mapping our Changing Wildlife was interpreted by Andrea Smith, a trainee art therapist.

"My idea around this project was really to try and emphasise the surveillance data through an interwoven map. I wanted to try and show the diversity of the many hours of tracking across a wide spectrum, each string recording and sending a piece of data that entwines to give a three-dimensional image of the hours put in. I wanted to create a simple analysis of something that is both spatially interactive and conveys the multitude of data collection," Smith said.